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"Ever wonder if City Council is as contentious and chaotic as it is sometimes portrayed? Here you can get a progressive perspective on some of the issues from someone who spent four years in the trenches. Totally unbiased, though!Feel free to comment but keep it respectful, just like they do at council."

Monday, May 14, 2012

Pet peeve

When I was first elected to council, the reading seemed
incredibly formidable. All those reports and issues and background material.
But after a few months and years, a certain pattern can be detected, and soon you
notice the reports begin to repeat themselves as they move from staff to
committee to council and then referred back to staff and once more through the
cycle.

Also familiar become certain complaints and complainants.
These become well-known to all councillors as residents shop for a sympathetic
ear for their pet peeve.

One of these will be before the Community Services Committee
tonight, the complaint about barking dogs.

Greenway Park is host to the third off leash dog park in
London. Established in 2007, the park is a big hit with dog owners in the west
end of the city.

Finding a location was not easy. Many people want dog parks,
a place where Rover can run freely and socialize with other dogs, but even
dog owners who can benefit from a nearby park don’t want it near them. They
worry about noise, about strangers in their neighbourhood, about too much
traffic.

That’s why council established strict regulations about the
location of a park, at least 30 meters from the nearest residence.

It’s also why Greenway Park seemed ideal. It’s already a
large park with plenty of parking and one frequently used for sports, picnics
and dog walking. The nearest neighbours are 37.5 meters away on a hill
overlooking the park. Since it is a popular park, there are always people
walking, running, skating or cycling by, keeping an eye on things, in addition
to routine surveillance by staff and the London Dog Owners Association. The park is open from dawn to dusk
which means that dog owners can take their best friends there before and after
work.

But unlike the two parks established previously, first at
Pottersburg in 1996 and then at Stoney Creek Meadows in 2006, the one in
Greenway Park has been the subject of continuing complaints.

According to the
staff report, there have been a total of 37 complaints about the off leash dog
park. Ten of these relate to parking issues which occurred prior to the
construction of the parking lot. There were also a few complaints about dogs
wandering at large in the nearby neighbourhood and one complaint about a dog
bite. But the vast majority of complaints, 27 in total were about excessive
noise from barking dogs.

But here comes the interesting part. Twenty-eight of the
complaints came from the same person, mostly about barking dogs.

I myself was the recipient of several of those complaints when
I served on the Board of Control. Early in 2008, when the park had been
operating only a couple of months, I received an email from the complainant
which I promptly sent off to staff for some feedback. But I had already heard
about the complaints from the ward councillor, and the matter had been put on
the council agenda. In light of that, I thought I had better visit the
neighbourhood to find out what was going on.

It was a bitterly cold February Sunday afternoon that I set
off. The temperature was-22C and, with
the wind chill factor, more like -30C. Given the frigid weather, I didn’t expect
to see many dogs or their owners in the park but that was not my mission. I
wanted to hear from the people in the neighbourhood adjacent to the park. What
were their perceptions?

I faithfully knocked at every door on the street. Most
residents were at home, happy to be in out of the cold. At some doors, I made a
quick inquiry about the noise from the dog park. Most people seemed pleased, if
somewhat surprised, to be asked. Most conversations were brief; no sense in
letting warm air escape. A few invited me in for an extended chat. Only a couple of households indicated that the barking was excessive or an irritant.

Then I approached the home of the complainant. There was a
vehicle in the driveway, a good sign that someone was home. I rang the bell.

I sprang back in alarm as two large black Labradors hurled
themselves against the front picture window, barking hysterically. I rang
again. The barking and jumping continued but the door remained unanswered. I
waited a few moments longer in the cold but no one appeared. I left.

But that evening I received an email from the complainant.
She had been talking with her neighbours and learned of my visit. She had been
at home but said she never answers the door because there are too many home
renovators and religious groups soliciting. She hoped that I would call again
but next time give advance notice. However, a few days later, she wrote a
letter to the editor of the Londoner complaining about my “unannounced visit”
when she was not at home.

Since then, she has made many complaints to councillors and
to the media about the noise from the dog park, both winter and summer. I have
made a point of riding my bicycle past the park at prime times and keeping a
record of the number of dogs in the park and the incidence of barking. Those
incidents have been few and far between.

That too, is what staff has learned from their testing. In
the most recent tests, noise levels maxxed out at 65 decibels, about the same
as normal conversation or average city traffic noise. By comparison, the nearby
soccer park generated noise levels of 80 decibels.

This information has done little to appease the complainant.
Following a delegation before the Community Services Committee in April of
2008, she stated in an email to several councillors that “[b]y the time we arrived home tonight the dog
park parking lots were overflowing and the barking was in full swing.
That doesn't surprise me because they had all this pent-up energy after keeping quiet over the weekend when
they felt they were being monitored.” (Emphasis added).

Needless to say,
despite repeated requests from the complainant, the off leash dog park was not
closed by the previous council, although some additional planting was installed at the back of the houses to act as an additional buffer.

But a new council provides new ears to hear
complaints. Last summer Councillor Denise Brown, representing her constituent,
brought forward a request to have staff assess the feasibility of reducing the
hours during which the off leash area of the park would be open for business.

Tonight, the
Community Services Committee will consider the staff recommendation: do nothing. As
the report points out, reducing hours of business and increasing the monitoring
of the park will increase costs and reduce service while doing little to reduce
the number of complaints. Or complainants.

7 comments:

We had a problem nieghbour who liked to use the City as a harassment tool. We had 4 bylaw calls on 4 different matters in one summer. The officer found nothing amiss each time. I called the city to see what MY rights were in this matter and was told that I had none. They could not disclose the name of the complainant (although I had a pretty good idea)and were obligated to send out more officers if they should call again. I think people should be fined for successive erroneous complaints...but that's just me complaining. Fine me 2cents!

I have long been disturbed when Council reacts to the compaint of one one person, in a city of over 400,000 people. I have wondered why there is a reaction at Council level when there are flew complaints. There will always be a few people who are chronic complainers about anything and all we do is give them credibility.

Why can the issue just not be dropped and the complainant be told if they are not happy, perhaps they would be wise to put their house for sale and move to a more suitable area.

Dog Parks are a useful beinefit for dog owners. There are rules established and self regulated. They are part of our viable community and a drawing card for people wanting to move here; as are wlaking trails and parks.

The complaintant should simply be told that nothing will be done. I noticed when the lchildren were little, the temper tantrums stopped when they received a firm no. They only continued when there was a maybe.

I've heard of a few instances where chronic complaintants were told, sometimes in writing, that they'd be charged a fee for investigation, either added onto their property taxes or deducted from their social benefit eligibilties.

In reponse to a recent blog by Gina Barber re the Greenway Dog Park situation.

Gina, I believe your latest blog about the Greenway Dog Park contained falsehoods about me & our previous dealings about the dog park and I am greatly distressed about this. You need to put this right!

I have already told you why I didn't answer the door - it was a Sunday afternoon and my husband and I were watching a movie, in our PJ's, and we weren't expecting anyone at the door - this is a free country, give me a break. You really seem to have a problem with people not responding to your beck & call.

To carry on with your diatribe...We have a garage that we use for our vehicle. Therefore, if we are at home our car is in the garage with the door shut and nothing would be in our driveway. Ever. So your comment about a vehicle being in our driveway equating with us being at home is a figment of your imagination.

Next, we have 2 dogs but they are not both Black Labs, they are not even both ``Black``- however, our dogs barking at the picture window do so to deter burglars - tell me when this is a bad thing!!!

Contrary to Vicki Van Lindens opinion - our dogs and the 3 who preceded them, are very happy in their almost 200 x 60 ft fenced lot and absolutely do not need to go to a disease-riddled dog fighting pen for exercise.

I am getting really sick of your maligning myself over a situation of which you have absolutely no knowledge, other than a ride-by on your bicycle. And you are from Byron - the area that got together over 500 signatures to OPPOSE a dog park being located in that area of the city.

You have really got a lot of nerve. But then you did lose the last election. You can`t be that good. Feel free to call me anytime but do not show up at my home unexpected, winter or summer.